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Call for new focus on indigenous jailing

Lisa Martin

Australia is making some progress on targets to reduce indigenous disadvantage but high incarceration rates remain a blind spot.

Prime Minister Julia Gillard on Wednesday delivered the government's annual Closing the Gap report on efforts to reduce indigenous disadvantage, amid calls to tackle the over-representation of Aboriginal people in jails.

Ms Gillard told parliament there were small improvements in mortality rates of children under five, year 12 attainment levels and employment.

But the gap in life expectancy was widening, as life expectancy increased in the non-indigenous population, and would be "enormously challenging" to close.

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The gap is now 11.5 years between non-indigenous and indigenous men and 9.7 years between women.

The Northern Territory is the only jurisdiction on track to meet the target to close the gap by 2031.

Ms Gillard also noted the poor results for literacy and numeracy, which she described as a "source of personal disappointment".

In 2008, following former Labor prime minister Kevin Rudd's apology to the stolen generations, federal, state and territory governments agreed on six ambitious targets to tackle indigenous disadvantage.

Aboriginal Social Justice Commissioner Mick Gooda on Wednesday called for a seventh target, reducing the over-representation of indigenous people in jails.

He warned that without action "we're going to see another stolen generation."

"We're getting kids growing up being comfortable in jail, it's becoming a refuge and we have to break that cycle," he told reporters in Canberra.

Opposition Leader Tony Abbott said Ms Gillard's response to the report was candid about the difficulty of the task.

"We need this level of candour if we are to achieve genuine progress," he told parliament.

"It doesn't matter what we do in this place, all our fine words and noble sentiments don't matter if adults aren't going to work and children aren't going to school."

He called for better reporting of school and work attendance statistics.

Australian Greens senator Rachel Siewert said the report did not count genuine progress.

"Just getting the kids through the door to pre-school is not enough, unless they're actually getting help with their hearing problems," she told AAP.

Ms Gillard also urged the Northern Territory and Queensland governments to reconsider their plans to relax alcohol restrictions in indigenous communities.

"I have a real fear that the rivers of grog that wreaked such havoc among indigenous communities are starting to flow once again," she said.

"Progress on Closing the Gap is hard enough without taking retrograde steps and undoing the good work that has already been accomplished."

Ms Gillard has written to the NT government urging it to reinstate the banned drinkers register immediately, but it has declined to do so.